There’s the oil from the oil wells which is inflammable but it’s not in the form of petrol or diesel, which is also decided from the same oil, but petrol isn’t oily to the touch the way regular cooking oil is. But cooking oil isn’t as inflammable, irrespective of whether it comes from sunflowers, or groundnuts, or coconuts or some other source. However, the oil on our skin is oily, but again not inflammable.
Help me wrap my heart around all these different ‘oils’ – and why some are more oily to the touch vs those that are not, and why some are inflammable vs those that are not.
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Oil is chains of hydrocarbons. Biological oil is fat where each hydrocarbon chain have a lipid acid end and three of these lipid acids is connected to a glyceride molecule. They have a lot of the same properties as mineral oil but are still distinct.
The other major factor in the property of oil is the length of the hydrocarbon chains. Shorter chains is lighter which means they catch on fire much easier, flows much faster, etc. The shortest of these oils are natural gas which is technically the same thing but just very light. The longer the hydrocarbon chains the heavier the oil. They have a hard time catching fire (diesel) and runs much more slowly. Eventually they become tar, butter, pitch or tallow.
The lubricity of each oil is a lot more complex. All oils are in general slippery but there are a lot of variations. The oils are not always straight hydrocarbons but often have kinks and loops and stuff which change their property. And small trace elements of esters or sulphur compounts can make the oil even more slippery.
Oil wells generally contain a mix of different lengths of hydrocarbons while vegitable oil or animal fat is generally a lot more consistent. When we destill and process the oil from the wells this too becomes far more consistent. As for the flamability heavier oils like cooking oil or diesel is hard to burn in open air but if you heat it up enough it will catch fire. The easiest way though is to use a whick which helps it evaporate from the heat of its own flame. This is how old oil lamps worked and how a candle works. You can even make the oil in your skin into a candle if you want to.
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